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Lure Meetings 2007

December 13, 2007

Created in 1952 by Maximilien Vox with Jean Garcia, Jean Giono, Lucien Jacques and Robert Ranc, Rencontres Internationales de Lure (Lure international Meetings) take place avery year in Lurs-in-Provence (France). These meetings are managed by a very young team, which excellently operates in their hardest tasks (and there are lots of them) and which shows communicative enthusiasm and dynamism. These team consists of graphic designers, typographers, editor, designer-writer, philosopher, student, drawer, images' collector. But whoever the specialists are, passion principally federates this exceptional event in its whole. This year's theme is "All or nothing - Encyclopaedia, universal typography", that is a pleasant holdall which can serve any possible view of mind. /// I particularly appreciated Michel Melot (former director of the Public information library of Paris' Pompidou Center amongst other things), for his fine and bright early and philosophical raisings. http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Melot /// Yves Perrousseaux, a historian of the epistolary art, revealed to us some parts of his researches, which cover the 18th and 19th centuries. http://www.perrousseaux.com /// Claire Paulhan, a great editor, told us about her books' factory, her vision, choices and passion: an original. literary collection concerning its contents as well as its style. Splendid. http://www.clairepaulhan.com /// Perrine Rouillon is also exceptional. This drawer unvailed her work and her character (the small thing). An enormous sensitivity, much personality and talent. http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Petite_Personne /// The Meetings team set up a beautiful exhibition about Michel Olyff, graphic designer of international fame, showing a committed and timeless art. /// In somehow the same way, Massin made a conference altogether traditional. But what a man though. http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massin /// Thierry Puyfoulhoux (Presence Typo), atypical and talented typographer revealed about his research concerning a fonts family dedicated to the problematics of the "Petit Robert" encyclopaedia, a work on space's optimization, legibility and harmony. A remarkable work, particularly throuh its subtlety, aesthetics and the aesthetic and economical answers raised to the problematics. The project is progressing and is one of the high spots of the Meetings. http://www.fontshop.com/fonts/foundry/presence_typo /// Alain Rey (Le Robert), talked specifically to us about the words that he is supposed to review and to officially make live. http://lerobertv2.customers.artful.net/alain_rey.htm /// David Poullard and Florence InouÃ, trying to stretch set French, were having a good time about some old and set phrases as "tiens donc", "dites voir" or "sous peu". The duet constituted a kind of Bescherelle (French conjugation reference book) of the expressions which give birth to a new language. Each phrase under an "Ordinary" typo reveals his potentiality. They created a great demonstration of the evolution of the set French language, raised from a very simple idea (similar to a long dinner between friends), and through their respective meetings, a book called "Le prÃcis de conjugaisons complÃtes". A funny and refreshing work which will encourage children (and grown-ups) to play with the French language and not to be afraid of it. http://www.exb.fr/livres_notice.php?cat=4&id=27 /// Thomas Huot-Marchant, typographer and graphic designer, introduced his "Minuscule", a typo designed specifically for very small bodies (2). This was another great moment, which echoed Thierry Puyfoulhoux. Starting from a quasi-scientific approach, he developed the "Minuscule" typo. Just as a spiritual son of Ladislas Mandel, he delighted the audience with his extremely rational approach leading to a surprising but nevertheless obvious result. A big man, already. http://www.256tm.com /// Johannes Bergerhausen. This typography teacher studied the Unicode font and its most exotic signs. A gigantic decoding attempt. "Unicode or how to frighten typographers". A great system, still surprising. http://www.unicode.org /// R2 Design. Liza Ramalho and Arthur Rebelo. The Portuguese duet introduced their most recent works: photography, signing, signs and editorial projects. Many works, fully explained and decoded. Talent, that's it. http://www.rdois.com /// Antoine Denize. As a multimedia designer and musician, Antoine Denize created many interactive works like the "Machines â¡ Ãcrire" (Typewriters) CD-ROM (Gallimard, 1999, many times prized), the "Ecoutez voir" and "SystÃme mode d'emploi" facilities for the â¦coute and Roland Barthes exhibitions (Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2004 and 2002), several commissions for museums (CitÃ des Sciences et de l'Industrie, BNF, Le Compa, Le P SS, etc). This author shows an eccentricity close to Michel Gontry's one in his creative workshop "Lis tes ratures", in which draft, erasures and corrections become a piece of work. A special mention for his works where he inserts fun and wit behind lines of codes. http://a.denize.free.fr/mezig/page-multimedia.html /// Jan Middendorp. Jan is a Dutch editor, author and designer working in Berlin. Among others, he wrote "Lettered, Typefaces and Alphabets by Clotilde Olyff" in 2000, and more recently "Dutch type", a complete presentation of Dutch typography and typographers from 15th to 20th century. http://www.dorpdal.com /// Always thrilling. Therefore I wish to thank the whole Meetings team, the audience as well as the great lecturers: Antoine Barnaud, Johannes Bergerhausen, Christian Bessigneul, Viviane Cabannes, Marc Combier, Antoine Denize, Mytil Ducomet, Martin Friedl, Thomas Huot-Merchant, Pierre Huyghebaert, Nathalie Latinus, Julien MasanÃs, Massin, Michel Melot, Daniel Mermet, Jan Middendorp, Claire Paulhan, Yves Perrousseaux, David Poullard, Thierry Puyfoulhoux, Liza Ramalho and Artur Rebelo (R2 Design), Alain Rey and DaniÃle Morvan, FranÃois Richaudeau, Perrine Rouillon, Jean-baptiste Soufron and Michel Olyff. The pleasant and original Daniel Mermet, who I don't need to introduce. Special thoughts for all the lecturers I may have forgotten and who all in their specific style shared their passion. Special thanks also to all participants, regular or new, who naturally and simply composed an enthusiastic and communicative audience. http://www.rencontresdelure.org